Jotun

In Norse mythology, the giants were a mythological race with superhuman strength, described as standing in opposition to the gods, although they frequently mingled with or were even married to these, both Æsir and Vanir. Their stronghold is known as Utgard, and is situated in Jötunheimr, one of the nine worlds of Norse cosmology, separated from Midgard, the world of men, by high mountains and dense forests. When living in worlds other than their own, they seem to prefer caves and dark places.

In Old Norse, they were called jötnar (sing. jötunn), or risar (sing. risi), in particular bergrisar, or þursar (sing. þurs), in particular hrímþursar. A giantess could also be known as a gýgr.

Jötunn (Proto-Germanic *etunaz) might have the same root as "eat" (Proto-Germanic *etan) and accordingly had the original meaning of "glutton" or "man-eater." Following the same logic, þurs might be derivative of "thirst" or "blood-thirst." Risi is probably akin to "rise," and so means "towering person." The word "jotun" survives in modern Norwegian as giant (though more commonly called trolls), and has evolved into jätte and jætte in Swedish and Danish. In modern Icelandic jötunn has evolved to mean "strength". In Old English, the cognate to jötunn are eoten, whence modern English ettin. Old English also has the cognate þyrs of the same meaning.

As according to Ynglingatal, Fundinn Noregr and Hversu Noregr byggdist, jötnar were from Finland, the word could also be derived from the Finnish word jätti - "giant". Regarding þurs, interestingly an ancient blood thirsty Finnish god of war was called Tursas. Both according to the Nordic sagas, as well as the present knowledge of ancient Finnish history, Finns were known to have chains of manned watchtowers ready to signal possible dangers from enemy attacks over vaste distances.

The connection between Old English word ent "giant", Old Norse jötunn "giant", Finnish jätti "giant" and the Tibetan Yeti "hairy giant" is not certain, but does certainly not seem too far fetched, when remembered that Fenno-Ugrian languages are still spoken nearby the areas of Tibetan language ^* and that Finnic languages were one of the earliest ones in the Scandinavian region. The Saami languages, also Finnic, also have in their mythology jiettanas, which were man-eating people with several wives. They could be captured and eaten up by humans, and their stomachs were filled with gold and silver. Whether or not this word came from Germanic languages is unknown.

"Thurs" is also the name of the rune ᚦ, which later evolved into the letter Þ.

Norse giants

Origins

The first living being formed in the primeval chaos known as Ginnungagap was a giant of monumental size, called Ymir. When he slept a giant son and a giantess daughter grew from his armpits, and his two feet copulated and gave birth to a monster with six heads. Supposedly, these three beings gave rise to the race of hrímþursar (rime giants or frost giants), who populated Niflheim, the world of mist, chill and ice. The gods instead claim their origin from a certain Búri. When the giant Ymir subsequently was slain by Odin, Vili and Vé (the grandsons of Búri), his blood (i.e. water) deluged Niflheim and killed all of the giants, apart from one known as Bergelmir and his spouse, who then repopulated their kind.

Character of the giants

The giants represent the forces of the primeval chaos and of the untamed, destructive nature. Their defeats by the hands of the gods represent the triumph of culture over nature, albeit by the cost of eternal vigilance. Heimdall perpetually watches the Bifröst bridge from Ásgard to Jötunheimr, and Thor often makes a visit in the world of the giants, to slay as many of their kind as he is able.

As a collective, giants are often attributed a hideous appearance – claws, fangs, black skin and deformed features, apart from a generally hideous size. Some of them may even have many heads or an overall non-humanoid shape; so were Jörmungandr and Fenrir, two of the children of Loki, viewed as giants. With bad looks comes a weak intellect; the Eddas more than once liken their temper to that of children.

Yet when giants are named and more closely described, they are often given the opposite characteristics. Unbelievably old, they carry the wisdom from bygone times. It is the giants Mímir and Vafþrúðnir Odin seeks out to gain this pro-cosmic knowledge. Many of the gods' spouses are giants. Njord is married to Skaði, Gerðr becomes the consort of Freyr, Odin gains the love of Gunnlod, and even Thor, the great slayer of their kind, loves Jarnsaxa, mother of Magni. As such, they appear as minor gods themselves, which can also be said about the sea giant Ægir, far more connected to the gods than to the scum occupying Jotunheim. None of these fear light, and in comfort their homes do not differ greatly from the gods'.

Ragnarök and the fire giants

A certain class of giants were the fire giants, said to reside in Muspelheim, the world of heat and fire, ruled by the fire giant Surtr ("the black one") and his queen Sinmore. Fornjót, the incarnation of fire, was another of their kind. The main role of the fire giants in Norse mythology is to wreak the final destruction of the world by setting fire to the world tree Yggdrasil at the end of Ragnarök, when the giants of Jotunheim and the forces of Hel shall launch an attack on the gods, and kill all but a few of them. Perhaps influenced by Christian eschatology, a new world will purportedly arise after this event, where the giants shall be no more.

Giants in Scandinavian folklore

In later times, giants were more commonly known as trolls in ^*, but in Sweden and Denmark they were generally called jätte (pl. jättar) and jætte (jætter) respectively, both names being derived from the Norse joten. In Norway they may also be known as jotun. Trolls in Sweden are typically smaller and often possess magical powers. According to Scandinavian folklore, giants can't stand the sound of church bells, and therefore must live far from civilization, in the mountains or the most remote forests. When they sometimes travel to human society, their main objective seems to be the silencing of this clamor by throwing large boulders at churches.

The giants were however mainly seen as a race of the past, whose remains could still be seen in the landscape. Saxo Grammaticus attributed the raising of dolmens to the giants, and a large stone lying about seemingly randomly in the country (actually a remnant of the Ice Age) was called "a throw of the giants" (jättekast in Swedish). This concept survived in folklore to a late date, demonstrated by a story from Swedish folklore, according to which a giant in elder times pulled up two huge chunks of land, forming lake Vänern and Vättern, and threw them out into the Baltic Sea, where they became the islands Gotland and Öland, respectively. Another legend in Sweden is that of Jätten Finn, a giant who agreed to build the cathedral in Lund on a bet. A monk bet him that if the giant finished building the cathedral before the monk was able to find out the giant's name, the monk would be forced to give Jätten Finn his eyes. But the monk overheard a giant woman singing the name of the giant in a song to her children, and told the giant his name just before he had finished building. The giant became so angry that he threw his arms around a pillar to tear down the cathedral, but at that moment he was turned into stone. In the cathedral today there is a pillar with a carving of a man hugging it, which was said to be Jätten Finn (but is generally believed to be Samson from the Bible in reality).

In Swedish the word jätte has also evolved into an adjective meaning "very" or "extremely" as well as meaning "giant" (both noun and adjective). It is used in words like jättebra and jättestor ("very good" and "very large"). Ironically it is also being used in modern Swedish in the expression jätteliten ("very small"), which is an oxymoron if one considers the original meaning (much as English expressions like "awfully nice").

List of giants and giantesses in Norse mythology